Today, the Environmental Protection Agency released its full notice denying California a waiver under the Clean Air Act to set greenhouse gas emissions standards for motor vehicles. This decision flies in the face of recommendations made to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson by his own staff. The EPA’s notice defies logic.
Archive for February, 2008
February29
Which world does the EPA live on?
February28
The youth are getting restless
From Todd Tucker @ Eyes on Trade: Progressive life in the U.S. can be rough. The two main political parties and many environmental and non-profit groups in the U.S. are not really structured to facilitate mass participation, university “activism” has turned towards the depoliticized navel gazing of much of “cultural studies”, blogs are cool but limited and not immune from collective action problems plaguing other platforms for action, and the union movement has been generally on the decline for decades. How’s a young person to tune in, turn on, and drop (metaphorical) bombz on the system? Continue Reading >>
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to hold Big Oil accountable Wednesday when it passed H.R. 5351, the “Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008,” which repeals nearly $18 billion in oil company subsidies over the next decade and dedicates the money to renewable energy and energy efficiency investments. Now the Senate must follow suit to help bring Americans relief at the pump and lay the groundwork for the type of clean energy investments we need to combat climate change.
February27
Promises, Promises
This entry is cross-posted at BushSecrecy.org.
Despite its promises, the Republican National Committee (RNC) no longer will try to restore missing e-mails sent by White House officials on RNC accounts, according to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, during a Feb. 26 hearing.
White House officials – including former presidential adviser Karl Rove – had used RNC accounts for government business, even though rules stated that they had to use official channels to conduct government business, according to the Feb. 27 Washington Post. (Administration officials have acknowledged such practices.)
The RNC had told the committee previously that it was trying to restore e-mails from 2001 to 2003, when the RNC’s policy was to purge all e-mails after 30 days.
Somehow, the RNC had a change of heart.
“The result is a potentially enormous gap in the historical record,” Waxman said, including the prelude to the Iraq war.
If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d say that Wikileaks.org, the Web site that investigates international corruption, got shut down because it knew too much. Of course, I’m not one of those guys. Still, one has to wonder why a California federal judge shut the site down by issuing an injunction against Wikileaks’ Internet host. Public Citizen intervened in the case today, filing a brief that raises some compelling points.
